Regarding Ball Lightning

Cecil’s Timeless Screed on Ball Lightning.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040917.html

And now, we do know.

And knowing is half the…I just can’t say it.

From Bosda’s Physorg link:
“* Furthermore, the plasma glows very brightly, although the plasmoids appear to be rather cold. A sheet of paper placed above them does get lifted, but it does not catch fire.*”

Yow. That’s mighty mysterious. St. Elmo was a happenin’ cat.

it’s just a bunch of ionized gas that takes a split second to reionize. The fact that it’s cold makes sense, seeing as it cannot stay ionized (as opposed to a hot plasma which is ionized precisely because of its heat). It glows brightly because of the reionization process.

can this explain ball lightening?

I don’t know, do you have a good process for why reionization wouldn’t happen during a thunderstorm? (honest question… i don’t know much about it. maybe the air is already depleted of electrons.)

should be:
“(as opposed to a hot plasma which GETS REIONIZED precisely because of its heat)”

ugh, and reionized should be changed to deionized just about everywhere else